With the retirement of McHenry County Board member Craig Wilcox to assume Pam Althoff’s seat in the Illinois State Senate McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks has the statutory duty to appoint a replacement.
The only checks on this power is that the replacement must be a member of the Republican Party and Franks’ appointment needs to be ratified by a majority of the County Board.
The local GOP recommended that long-time member John Hammerand, whose term expired as new members were sworn in, replace Wilcox.
Here is the communication from Republican Party Chairman Diane Evertsen:
McHenry County Republicans Support John Hammerand for vacated seat on County Board
John Hammerand
McHenry County, IL – After interviewing and carefully considering several qualified applicants for the Dist 4, County Board seat, the McHenry County Republican Executive Committee endorses and puts forth John Hammerand for the vacancy.
John Hammerand who represented Dist 4 and whose term this month should take the place of Craig Wilcox. Craig Wilcox vacated his seat upon being sworn in as IL Senator for the 32nd District.
Diane Evertsen, McHenry County Republican Chairwoman said
“John, being a seasoned member of the board, knows the ins and outs of County Board Government.
“He was unique in that he has extensive knowledge of the History of McHenry County and the County Board’s votes on several decisions.
“He is in good standing with current county board members and has a great relationship with his constituents.”
Chuck Wheeler. McHenry County Republican Vice Chairman added:
“Recently retired, John also will have the time needed to dedicate to county board issues, board meetings and participation on committees.”
About John Hammerand:
John is a resident of Wonder Lake, IL. He’s married over 45 yrs, with two grown children. He’s a retired small business owner of 35 yrs. with previous Sales Rep experience for Major Capital Equipment Manufacturing Co. His Community Involvement is extensive. John has won every-time he’s run for county board with his key issue being ~Excess Government Spending and Regulation.’
= = = = =
Ignoring the GOP recommendation, Franks has selected Steve Doherty, according to the Northwest Herald.
A ratification vote will be held Tuesday.
The Chairman of the County Board does not need to heed the recommendation of a party official.
There is no law that dictates this.
He’s a good man.
It’s the top reason Franks and Althoff would suggest someone else?
So Chuck let me get this straight.
Your reasoning to put John forward is he recently retired, so now he has time needed to dedicate to county board issues.
So what has been doing for the last 20 years while he wasn’t retired and on the County Board.
The Republican Party is doomed with you Diane at the helm.
>know months in advance you’re going to have a vacancy
>party chairman does nothing
>franks proposes someone on thursday
>vote supposed to be on tuesday
>party chairman proposes hammerand on sunday
>hammerand was literally just on county board and decided not to run
>reasonable people infer he does not want to be on board
>party has has history of bending at the knee for franks’ appointments even when there was a greater reason to oppose compared to now
>board has even more democrats and RINOs now than in a year or two ago
…
Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen…
The GOP Leadership in the county is a mess.
This whole rebellion thing that happened has turned into a nightmare.
All decent intelligent people have headed for the hills.
For starters, Hammerand was the first County Board member to point out the obscenely large surplus in the Valley Hi Fund
A better headline for this blog post would be, “County GOP Chairman ignores will of 92% of the people who voted for term limits in endorsing a 20 year career politician for vacant seat.”
Jack Franks puts someone on the Board that probably cant win an election i.e. Spoerl get a Dem in.
If by chance does win then you have another Dem on the board that is running under Republican.
Now that Dems are winning elections, though can’t trust McClellans numbers, wonder how many R’s will switch to D’s?
The Chairman does not have to pay any attention to recommendations of the Party.
Where the Chairman is from the same Party as the Member who needs to be replaced, the former tends to follow the Party recommendations.
Here the recommendation of the opposing Party is the Kiss of Death.
Although the Board has to ratify the appointment, they cannot pick their own candidate, so the Chairman can just keep coming back with other candidates until he wears them down.
Hammerand was a maverick and didn’t endear himself to many on the Board in his 20 years of service so I don’t expect them to hold out for him. He was taken off of Finance by Chairman Joe for his consistent
“no’ votes on the budgets and has not held any leadership positions or committee chairmanships other than Liquor as I recall.
Is this candidate any relation to Don Doherty?
FACT: Elections have consequences and Evertson is an unelected politico who does not have power over the County Chairman – Republican or Democrat – to nominate a career politician who probably spends more time in Florda than McHenry County anyway.
Hammerand didn’t run for re-election.
Why should he be appointed?
If it’s a kiss of death then run someone against him in the primary.
Why is the local GOP too stupid, low-energy, and disorganized to do something basic like that?
Doesn’t take much to win a local election — mailers, yard signs, and knocking on doors does the trick.
Guy’s gonna get appointed.
The board appointed Franks’ appointments even when the party chairman made her recommendation FIRST (Christensen and Spoerl).
This time it’s after.
Woops.
The board appointed Franks’ appointments even when the county board was less supportive of Franks.
Now it’s more supportive of him. Ruh-roh!
Gee I wonder how this will play out…
The last few times, when there was more reason to oppose, even conservatives said they couldn’t oppose the appointments.
Why?
1. They said they had no reason to even though they wanted to. (How does that make any sense? If you wanted to oppose the appointments, you have a reason.)
2. They didn’t know what would happen if they voted no. LOL A position based on fear and ignorance. Yeah, that’s great optics. Very inspiring, very strong… How is it that appointments in other layers of government are rejected? Do they just plunge into anarchy if someone is rejected?
I’m beginning to think Franks isn’t even that smooth of a political operator, his opposition is just so embarrassingly sloppy that he can run circles around 24/7.
Quite funny too.
One guy outmaneuvering dozens of people on the right.
GOP really is not sending their best.
Get ready to take another L.
This L is gonna be nothing like what’s coming over the next two election cycles.
Is the same Diane Evertsen that Rep. McSweeny said Gov. Rauner should apologize for even meeting with.
Shocked people aren’t listening to her.
@Reap – You sure are right.
Diane Evertsen was a fringe jingoistic-antiimmigrant-nationalist before it was “cool.”
It’s not Evertsen’s fault.
She’s one of the few good things left in the party of Reick, Althoff, Aavang and other assorted RINOs
Here was the vote:
19 yes to confirm Doherty, 2 abstain (Bates and Wheeler), 1 no (Thorsen)
The “RINO” excuse for why you’re not getting your way is getting stale.